Why Sony Should Ditch Everything But the PlayStation

An anonymous reader writes: A couple weeks ago, we were surprised by news that Sony was spinning off its game development studio. More recently, the company has been thinking about exiting both the mobile phone market and the TV market. An opinion piece suggests Sony shouldn't stop there, focusing more on the its PlayStation division and a few other areas — and giving up on the rest. "Continuing to concentrate on phones and other products actually makes the PlayStation experience worse for most people. Take the PS4's ability to stream games to mobile devices — a killer feature needlessly limited to the PS Vita and Sony's Xperia Android line. Why can't I play Destiny on my iPad when the TV's occupied? The iOS PlayStation app, meanwhile, is a confusing mess that hasn't even been updated for the iPhone 6. These sound like minor points, but imagine what Sony could do if everyone at the company were focused on making its most important product as good as possible. As Microsoft is learning with its recent iOS and Android experiments, you have to serve the customers where they already are."

Comments

Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[turkeydance]

sounds like a Sony strategy which is applicable to the entire Corporation.

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[MrBigInThePants]

Sony have always wanted to be the giant behemoth that dictates the market and thus abuses it for their own profit at the expense of everyone else.

They have always done this and become exceptionally arrogant in the process..

The difference now is that they have become increasingly irrelevant while still vainly attempting those same business practices. It is a common progression for companies of this ilk. (e.g. Microsoft with the browser and search)

I think what should happen is that we should streamline OUR lives and be rid of Sony.

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[Anonymous Coward]

Stupid comparison.
Microsoft had to do that to be able to provide the corporate customers an environment where they could actually deliver a working interface for years to come. The only way to do so is to have a browser they controlled. To have a browser most people used provided an almost full proof environment. They could never have done that if they claimed their users could use netscape.
The reason they don't have to do this now is because browsers are finally getting their act together. Stuff just works on most of them. The only reason to try and hold on to this market place is their desktop share. But even in that case...the competition still lacks an OS that can keep up. Sure we can dream about a linux desktop year but the reality is this will NEVER happen. Not with the current state of things. It is more likely that Apple would take this thrones if Microsoft was to disappear.
Sony's problem is their aging management and the inability to come up with products before their competition. They are overpriced as well. The only division where they are actually still relevant is the PS. As far as their other media divisions go...you can totally replace them with "cheap" alternatives which do a an OK if not BETTER job at replacing them. For LESS money.

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[JoeMerchant]

>I think what should happen is that we should streamline OUR lives and be rid of Sony.

Done. Bought a PS3 in around 2008, and won a killer Vaio notebook in a contest around 2009 - severely disappointed in both for multiple reasons. Sony is off my approved vendor list, I just don't consider products with their brand anymore. Haven't encountered anything since the PS3 that is a "Sony exclusive" that I remotely care about owning.

I do give the PS3 credit for one thing, video games are essentially a way to waste time, and PS3 has taken that to a whole new level, wasting tons of time without even having to play the game at all. Update required x 100, only plays media in very specific formats, Alternate OS takes an inordinate amount of time to install, Alternate OS pulled as a feature after spending an inordinate amount of time giving it a chance to "own" my living room TV. Done.

I have an Intel NUC running the TV now, and instead of PS3 games, I have Steam. Instead of a crappy Media cataloging and playing experience I have Kodi and VLC. Instead of a gimped up web browser, I have Gimp and Chrome. Much better now.

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[MrBigInThePants]

Same here.

Although they do make good TVs. Their blueray boxes are a joke. (was bought as a present for me by my brother without my knowledge...so no one call me a hypocrite)

I just installed OpenElec on my pi and it is AMAZING.

Sony....suck a dick.

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[hairyfeet]

The previous CEO burnt all the bridges and it will take the better part of a decade to rebuild them, if they ever can.

Say what you will about Sony but in the 80s and 90s you want a damned good cutting edge piece of gear that will easily last the better part of a decade if not longer? Then YOU BOUGHT SONY because everything from the solder to the picture tubes was the best quality you could get, just well built through and through. Then they got arrogant, spread the company too thin, and every time profits didn't hit what wall street wanted? Well just drop the quality without dropping the price and there ya go! It didn't take too many failed units before folks got wise to that shit and now everybody knows you buy Sony? What you get is a Vizio with a higher price tag.

So no shit they are thinking of bailing, like so many companies from IBM to Seagate they sold out the quality of the brand for short term gains, now its time to pay the check.

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[Thanatiel]

I think what should happen is that we should streamline OUR lives and be rid of Sony.

Sony is on my no-buy list already.

Got a PS4, didn't used it much and it still broke after 14 months (the fan doesn't start anymore).
They ask for 200EUR for the fix. It was so ridiculous I could not help but laugh.
Be it phone, camera, gaming console or computer : never Sony again.

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[Type44Q]

Say what you will about Sony but in the 80s and 90s you want a damned good cutting edge piece of gear that will easily last the better part of a decade if not longer? Then YOU BOUGHT SONY

Sony's quality was acceptable enough in the 70's and 80's but had already begun to turn to shit by the time the 90's were underway.

If you wanted very good Japanese electronics, you bought Pioneer or Kenwood. If you wanted damned good, you BOUGHT DENON. :)

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[CronoCloud]

wasting tons of time without even having to play the game at all. Update required x 100,

That's only if you don't use it, or don't have background updates turned on.

only plays media in very specific formats

If you mean it doesn't play your pirated anime MKV's then say so. It does play the following:
        Memory Stick Video Format
        - MPEG-4 SP (AAC LC)
        - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile (AAC LC)
        - MPEG-2 TS(H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, AAC LC)
        MP4 file format
        - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile (AAC LC)
        MPEG-1 (MPEG Audio Layer 2)
        MPEG-2 PS (MPEG2 Audio Layer 2, AAC LC, AC3(Dolby Digital), LPCM)
        MPEG-2 TS(MPEG2 Audio Layer 2, AC3(Dolby Digital), AAC LC)
        MPEG-2 TS(H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, AAC LC)
        AVI
        - Motion JPEG (Linear PCM)
        - Motion JPEG (μ-Law)
        AVCHD (.m2ts / .mts)
        DivX
        WMV
        - VC-1(WMA Standard V2)

As for audio it does WAVE, WMA, AAC, ATRAC and MP3. For images, GIF, JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP and MPO

Alternate OS takes an inordinate amount of time to install

I am quite familiar with installing Linux on a PS3, it depends on the packages you choose to install. It's no longer than any other LInux distro.

Alternate OS pulled as a feature after spending an inordinate amount of time giving it a chance to "own" my living room TV.

If you wanted to keep OtherOS, you could. You have a choice, keep OtherOS, and lose access to PSN because your PS3 isn't running current firmware. Or update. Your choice, and it asks to confirm..twice.

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[JoeMerchant]

I get that you love your PS3 for what you use it for. Anytime I turn mine on (and I'll be damned if I leave it in standby heating the room for months on end just so it can auto-update), I've got a ton of update hassle to wait through.

Defending the OtherOS thing is just hillarious, do you work for Sony legal? It was an arrogant, obnoxious move that took a single piece of hardware in my living room, that I bought and paid for and presumed I had some semblance of ownership of that used to do two things and told me, sorry Buzz Lightyear, you must choose.... What if you bought a car to go to work during the week and to do personal errands on weekends - how would you feel if a TOS agreement changed about the personal errands thing, telling you that if you ever want to drive your car to work again, you can no longer use it for personal errands without doing 6 hours of reconfiguration work to switch the "use mode"?

As for the media thing, we have a collection of DVDs, mostly kids stuff that they watch over and over. Being kids, if we watched from the discs, we'd have to buy the discs over and over, not to mention buying the player over and over - my 2nd PS3 (first one YLOD'ed after about 18 months, didn't really feel like doing the toaster oven reflow repair to get its 300W power draw back online since units 50% more power efficient had been released), 2nd PS3 lost its disc drive capability about 60 days after we got it - sure it was covered by warranty, but I had just gone through 12 months of warranty repair hell on the Vaio (4 months of downtime, bad screen, wait for onsite repair, onsite repair tries 3 times and fails, had to mail to factory for a month to get it done, then overheating at the 11 month mark, again mailed to factory for a month to have them declare that the fans were full of dust, a year later - being very careful to run the notebook only in the most dust free locations possible, the fans are packed out again, requiring disassembly to address or the thing will overheat after a few minutes of any processor load - f-ing joke.) So, no, not interested in sending the new PS3 back for warranty work with a chance that the kids stuck a postcard in the slot or something - open it myself, no, it's not the kids, it's defective mechanicals, but now I've voided the warranty by looking. Matters not, we mostly use games from the hard drive and movies from the server anyway... so, about that movie format thing, backing up our own owned videos from DVD to a file server - only specific types of DLNA servers were recognized (maybe that has improved with later software updates, wouldn't know, don't care), and after carefully selecting and ordering and installing a compatible media server, only specific MP4 encodings were recognized, had hunt down the specifics on the internet, because the first three formats I tried didn't work, so now the bulk of those backed up DVDs are encoded in the PS3 specific MP4 encoding format - once you know what that is, you can replicate it all day long, but if you had a previously made collection of videos, too bad, so sad.

So, sure, if you spend your life on the PS3, you can work around the pain and get some enjoyment out of it. Obviously, they can't be completely useless to everybody or they wouldn't still have 500 square feet of space in every Target and WalMart. But, ask yourself, how many hours a week do you spend on your PS3? How many hours cumulative since 2007? If, instead of playing PS3 all that time, you had been spending that time at a cash register, asking: "you want fries with that?" for $7.50 an hour and banking all that money, could you now afford one of these: http://www.chevrolet.com/2014-... ? For the lazy, that costs a little over 7000 hours at $7.50 an hour, or about 17 hours a week since 2007.

Mr. PS3 defender, do you spend less than 2.5 hours a day playing video games?

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[CronoCloud]

Anytime I turn mine on (and I'll be damned if I leave it in standby heating the room for months on end just so it can auto-update),

It doesn't heat the room in standby...it sure does when it's on though.

It was an arrogant, obnoxious move that took a single piece of hardware in my living room, that I bought and paid for and presumed I had some semblance of ownership of that used to do two things and told me, sorry Buzz Lightyear, you must choose....

It may be your hardware but the software on it is licensed and it connects to a service that you don't own. You may not like it or agree, but PSN is Sony's sandbox, so they get to make the rules of access. And one of those rules is that if you're not running the most current firmware, you can't connect to PSN because your PS3 isn't "Trusted". The same happens if you disconnect your PS3 for a long time....you have to update the system to connect to PSN. FYI, I was affected as well, I had YDL on mine.

so, about that movie format thing, backing up our own owned videos from DVD to a file server - only specific types of DLNA servers were recognized (maybe that has improved with later software updates, wouldn't know, don't care),

Never had any problem with any DLNA server I tried with it, once I got the ports right. Personally I prefer ps3mediaserver.

only specific MP4 encodings were recognized, had hunt down the specifics on the internet, because the first three formats I tried didn't work, so now the bulk of those backed up DVDs are encoded in the PS3 specific MP4 encoding format

It's not PS3 specific, the PS3 takes standard h264 AVC MPEG4 part 10, supported by many other devices. The PS3 can take Baseline, Main or High profile with CABAC. Which profile you use depends on the resolution...it's an MP4 thing, not a PS3 thing. It can also do MPEG4 part 2 (SP/ASP), and all those other formats listed, but h264 AVC is the most widely supported video format in consumer devices. I've been using the format since 2006, two years before I picked up a PS3.

But, ask yourself, how many hours a week do you spend on your PS3? How many hours cumulative since 2007?
Mr. PS3 defender, do you spend less than 2.5 hours a day playing video games?

Yeah, less than 2.5 hours a day these days, It's why I haven't finished Skyrim, I buy fewer games. I have a LOT fewer PS3 games than PSone or PS2 games, and even fewer PS4 games than PS3 games. I picked up my PS3 in 2008, not 2006, a CECHE MGS4 model, the last of the "Fat PS3's" The PS4, however, I bought on launch day. I do play more portable games than I did in the past.

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[ndavis]

Say what you will about Sony but in the 80s and 90s you want a damned good cutting edge piece of gear that will easily last the better part of a decade if not longer? Then YOU BOUGHT SONY

Sony's quality was acceptable enough in the 70's and 80's but had already begun to turn to shit by the time the 90's were underway.

If you wanted very good Japanese electronics, you bought Pioneer or Kenwood. If you wanted damned good, you BOUGHT DENON. :)

I agree with this!! I had a Sony Dual Tape Deck from around 1985 that still worked as of 5 years ago when my Mom gave it away. In 95 I purchased a Sony 5 disk CD changer why because my Dual Tape Deck worked so well. Fast forward 3 months and the CD player doesn't work anymore as it was still under warranty I took it to be repaired. After a week the shop calls me back says they cannot fix it but have contacted Sony and they will refund my purchase. I then purchase another Sony CD player thinking I just got a lemon. This one has broken just after the warranty was up and I had to pay to have it fixed. Needless to say I don't purchase Sony products now because I want to own the best but because I'm settling on something that is affordable or meets my needs.

I've seen this time and time again with companies if you want to stay high end KEEP YOUR PRODUCT QUALITY HIGH!! If you want to lower quality you better lower the price or risk loosing market share rapidly!

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[hairyfeet]

I should have clarified I was talking about EARLY 90s, by 95 the quality had already started turning into deep fried dogshit. That was the case across the board BTW, even the first generation PlayStations were lucky if they made 90 days past warranty before the CD drives just fucking died! Going through 3 PlayStations in less than a year was ultimately turned me into a PC gamer as having to go months without my games and shell out the ass because Sony couldn't be bothered to put in a quality CD motor? REALLY pissed me off! Its amazing how many wear the rose colored goggles when it comes to the PS-1 but the gen 1 and 2 units? Absolute garbage.

That said from the mid 70s through around 92-93? You wanted a top notch piece of gear you bought Sony PERIOD. I had the same experience as you did with a Sony reel to reel unit, finally giving it away when I couldn't buy tape for it anymore and it still ran as good as the day I got it, the same was true across their entire line, you wanted something that would just last and last while having all the latest features? You bought Sony.

But we have seen the same story over and over again, once great companies get CEOs that care only about short term gains and cripple the company, from AMD firing their engineers and just using computer layouts to Seagate buying Maxtor and using their shitty ARM controllers on Seagate products, its a story as old as business and its the reason Sony is in such bad shape now. You burn your bridges for short term gains? You can't come crying when you need to work your way back.

Re:Exiting...Giving up...Spinning off

[Wootery]

The only way to do so is to have a browser they controlled. To have a browser most people used provided an almost full proof environment. They could never have done that if they claimed their users could use netscape.

What?

Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[BarbaraHudson]

Electronics are a low-margin business. Sony is making huge money from Sony Entertainment. Movies, licensing syndicated TV shows, music ... they don't need PlayStation.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[Anonymous Coward]

Except because lately it seems the PlayStation business is the only one actually making money for them.

I know they're also in the insurance business, I wonder what's going on there.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[Darinbob]

I think that the Playstation fans would want Sony to focus on that and absolutely nothing else, as is clear from the biased article. On the other hand, fans of other Sony products might have the same idea, dump the Playstation and focus on what they think is more important. Any company that has more than one product probably has to put up with these tug of wars. The management team has almost certainly done the math and figured out what they think is the best way to help profits, and this does not necessarily mean becoming a life support system for various products.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[Aighearach]

The PlayStation isn't electronics business, it is in fact entertainment.

Electronics is low margin because of commodity parts and consumer demand for interoperability. Think, microwaves and computers. You don't need a special brand of microwave to heat Packaged Dinner Product.

Console gaming is not a commodity market at all. You can't buy a game and then play it on whatever console was on sale that week. There are no generics, and there is no interoperability. If a particular console has low margin, it means the company is trying to make money off the games. It won't be low margin when considered in total. Generally speaking, the lowest margin consoles are associated with the highest margin game divisions!

As to TFS, what a load. Spinning stuff off doesn't change anything about the products, it changes the corporate accounting. The different departments already had their own bosses. The presumption that people are somehow "distracted" by the parent company employing people (often in totally different locations) to work on other products seems especially daft. If they spin off a division, none of the employees went anywhere, nobody is more or less distracted. Ownership doesn't even change; the parent company simply uses a different set of procedures to manage their subsidiary. If they were truly being distracted by owning both divisions, they'll be equally distracted owning the stock of the subsidiary, and they'll be just as able to mingle their efforts if they desire spaghetti.

And if they shut down a division and sell off the product line, those employees all get laid off, except the few that get hired by whoever bought the bits and pieces. That doesn't reduce the distraction for the other departments at all.

Honestly, if changing the corporate structure was as disruptive as pundits are hoping and fantasizing, they wouldn't be doing it. ;)

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[UnknownSoldier]

The data is also extremely misleading as Reddit readers points out in this this graph

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[wiredlogic]

There's more to Sony than just Playstation but I wouldn't expect fanboy gamers to know much about the company. Their professional and prosumer video camera lineup has some value as well as other high margin niche business segments they serve. Many people are unaware that they are one of only two manufacturers turning out high-end video CCDs.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[thegarbz]

The management team has almost certainly done the math and figured out what they think is the best way to help profits,

They have and they have said they are going to focus on the profitable segments like the Playstation and Entertainment segments and start spinning off underperformers.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[PhloppyPhallus]

Exactly right. Sony's gaming division is about ~10-15% of the company by revenue; how do you "spin off" 85-90% of the company? While I think the article has a point that Sony has too often crippled its products in order to help other business divisions succeed, I think the solution is more of a refocusing of corporate priorities than dissassembling the company. For instance, there are a lot of shared technologies that go into the range of consumer electronics products Sony makes, and fairly obvious advantages to sharing the IP and manufacturing capability between business units. Moreover, there's obvious places for cross-promotion of Sony Entertainment's products with Sony consumer electronics and games; but it's only going to be a good strategy in the long term if consumers feel they're getting something extra and not just having Sony's marketing pushed down their throats. Sure, Sony's reputation has, overall, been on the decline since the 80s, but with the right management priorities, I think they could easily be the Japanese equivalent to Apple. They just need to focus first and foremost on making products consumers will want to buy, and stop getting lost in protecting the existing business where it may not be so successful.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[JoeMerchant]

What they need are PlayStation games. Gotta have a PS3 in the living room in order to sell games into it.

Still small potatoes compared to movies, but probably a more reliable ROI.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[JoeMerchant]

Whether Sony spins off the PS3/games division, or spins off everything else and keeps PS3/games, or - most likely - organizes PS3 and games in their own business units while keeping the Sony brand on all of it, only really matters for consumer brand perception.

I don't see Sony leaving the TV type electronics or movie businesses anytime soon.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[RubberDogBone]

The ups and downs of movies and TVs can't be used, rationally, to support a company like Sony. Sony Pictures is only as good as their last blockbuster, or perhaps their next. But in between those are lots of films that lose money even before Hollywood Accounting(TM) takes over. There are no guarantees. And it only takes one or two expensive flop movies (and Hollywood is paved with the carcasses of such films) to ruin a studio.

TV is the same: ratings, networks, fickle viewing habits make it very hard to look at TV series as a reliable and steady source of revenue. Some years might be good, but many will be bad.

Sony got into making movies because they thought it would be cool to see the Sony Pictures logo before a movie you play on your Sony DVD player and watch on your Sony TV connected to your Sony home theater. It is cool for the executives. But nobody else ever gave a damn. And if nobody cares, why bother owning a movie studio?

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[Aighearach]

I thought their reputation had improved significantly since the 80s. Back then I was warned by TV repairpeople not to buy Sony because they cheaped out passive components and their capacitors died way sooner than generic brands. They were, in modern terms, the Toshiba of TVs, but with better styling. Now their TVs look the same as a Toshiba, but their laptops have popular styling. And nobody expects a laptop to last as long as an old TV, and I doubt they even have electrolytic caps to blow out.

Totally anecdotal and subjective, but I'd say they're way closer now to being seen as the Japanese Apple, at least in North America.

It is obvious that there is potential for game-movie tie-ins, but it is not so obvious how to do it and make money. You have to either risk a lot of money on the game before you know if the movie is a hit, or else do it afterwards and miss most of the tie-in potential. And the studios aren't very good at predicting the box office, because they try to make the movies just good enough for each of a bunch of different demographics. It isn't like they (ever) make the best movie they can for a particular demographic anymore. Every movie has to have broader appeal, which means that they're not aiming at anybody loving it; they want the most people possible to just barely give it 5 stars, because that is more ticket sales than if a smaller number of people solidly give it 5 stars. Nobody wants to make the best movie ever, that movie would be lucky to gross in the top 10. The result is that they make a lot of money, but also have a lot of stinker movies, and can't predict the big hits well enough to double their investment with a quality pre-made game with timely tie-ins. By the time you know if the movie is a hit, you're too late to even time a game release to the DVD.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[dwywit]

Anyone got figures for their digital video camera business?

They're a popular choice for many filmmakers, from hobbyists to indies to professionals (but not this little black duck). They're good cameras, but I won't use them unless there's no other choice - I don't like Sony's ethics^W business practices.

The likes of Red, Canon, Blackmagic, and even GoPro have to be eating into Sony's revenue.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[Aighearach]

I mostly agree, but they could spin off (eg change the name) the movie division without brand harm, because while people often know what studio made a movie, they more often don't, and almost nobody would go to a movie (or not) on that basis.

I've heard people insist they won't see any "mainstream hollywood" movie, but I've never heard anybody say they won't watch a movie from (or unless it is from) Brand X.

They would leave the TV business if they weren't also selling high priced audio/video gear to people who like single-brand or few-brand entertainment setups. But they are. So they won't, even if it is losing money.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[metrix007]

Are you the same ill informed dipshit who submitted the article?

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[AK Marc]

You can buy content on the PS3 through PSN. But they won't let you play it on anything else (maybe Vita, if you have a PS4, but I have neither of those, so haven't tried the new generation). Why would I pay Sony for something I can't *ever* play on my phone, iPad, or PC?

Maybe it's the 3rd party apps they are using, but that's still their fault.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[thegarbz]

Haven't seen figures for the professional video market but they may get propped up by mirrorless, compact and to a lesser extent DSLR sales where Sony has seen a year on year rise in marketshare, especially in mirrorless format.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[MouseR]

"Electronics are a low-margin business"

Someone should inform Apple.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[rochrist]

The whole article reads to me as though it was written by someone who doesn't really know how large Sony is and how many areas they're involved in. Things that don't involved consumer electronics or entertainment.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[BarbaraHudson]

"Electronics are a low-margin business"

Someone should inform Apple.

The last I looked, Apple didn't make much of what they sell - it's made in China by low-margin companies like Foxconn. That's why you'll only see stickers that say "Designed in the USA" and not "Made in the USA".

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[JoeMerchant]

If you've got a loyal customer base, that's future money to be made - if they are losing money today with that loyal customer base, that's mismanagement, they can fix that in the future. Even if they fire every engineer and sell every factory, they can still sell the brand to someone who will make "Sony gear" and get those customers to buy the new products.

Agree about the movie studio branding, but, why does it matter what the name of the division is if the accounting is already separated? I suppose it would make sense to split the stock so you could buy Sony pictures separately from Sony electronics - if you care about such things.

Re:Sony doesn't care for electronics for a reason.

[Aighearach]

I haven't gone into the weeds of their accounting, but I'm assuming they were bundling different units together before, and now they're splitting parts off. I'd expect them to reverse it in the future and re-bundle. There are tricks and games at both ends of that cycle.

There is no guarantee that a loyal customer base means profit, or that the lack of profit is mismanagement. They have products that were high margin 30 years ago, that are low margin now, and if another company has cheaper supply for geo-political reasons then they won't compete well with that product. Customers might prefer their product, might even be willing to pay extra for it, but the willingness of the customers to pay extra won't be calibrated to the actual difference in margin. It will vary by product. Also, they have to be able to make these decisions without always knowing exactly what customers will pay. With high margin products a new fad can take the wind out of your sales, but with low margin any disruption and you can be losing money, not just making less. Sony has a lot of experience at losing money, and making it.

Oh boy

[Pikoro]

Next 40 posts will be about /. users who haven't bought anything from Sony since the rootkit fiasco, but reserve the right to complain about Sony products anyways.

Re:Oh boy

[Anonymous Coward]

I also don't buy music from artists I hate and yet I may still complain about them

Re:Oh boy

[zlives]

a shitty product should be shat upon regardless of actually being smart enough to not pay for it.

Re:Oh boy

[Boycott BMG]

Whoops! Accidentally modded you there.

When you break everything apart...

[SuperKendall]

All that remains is Ruins.

Re:When you break everything apart...

[Grishnakh]

What are you talking about? We don't need these companies. We sure as hell don't need Sony: they don't do or produce anything that society relies on. I don't need a Sony TV, I can buy one from Samsung, LG, or Vizio, or lots of others. I don't need Sony music (and artists can go find another label). I sure don't need crappy Sony computers, I can get them from many other makers.

The same mostly goes for the others too. I never said eliminate all corporations, I just have a select list. I'd be happy to see GM disappear and for everyone to buy cars from other carmakers which can make a decent ignition switch for instance.

Re:When you break everything apart...

[jaklode]

God no, why in hell would you buy a Samsung TV?

Re:When you break everything apart...

[Grishnakh]

Well, it's better than a Sony TV....

But no, I wouldn't buy one anyway. I'll stick with a Vizio dumb TV instead. And if they stop making those, I'll find some other brand that makes dumb TVs.

Re:When you break everything apart...

[jaklode]

I'm interested: What do you think is better on a Samsung TV? All reviews I read said that Sony TVs have vastly superior picture quality than Samsung. Unfortunately, I did not do any comparison myself, but I am very satisfied with my 2011 Bravia. And Sony's previous UI was very easy to use for anyone who used a PlayStation product. Not sure how much fun that will be with the new Android TV UI. As a bonus point, Sony (Smart) TVs are among the cheapest (followed by LG and then Samsung). The non-smart R series is even cheaper.

Re:When you break everything apart...

[Grishnakh]

I haven't been paying really close attention, but it's usually been my observation that Sony electronics are more expensive than everything else.

Anyway, Sony -> rootkit fiasco, DRM, and many other things. So there's no way I'm going to give them my money.

And now with all the stuff about Smart TVs recording your conversations, those are out too, no matter who makes them.

Sony should return to its roots

[MpVpRb]

They should dump the "content" divisions..the movie studio and record company

The "content" divisions crippled innovation by insisting that the first priority must be content restrictions

They should shift their focus from style to substance

The "style" advocates crippled innovation by insisting that the first priority must be fashion

They should do whatever it takes to return to being the world's best electronics company

Re:Sony should return to its roots

[serbanp]

unfortunately these times are gone and won't come back. Consumer electronics carry too low a margin and there are too few potential customers willing to pay for quality but expensive(r) products for Sony to go back to their roots.

Re:Sony should return to its roots

[l0ungeb0y]

Their roots? There seems to be more than enough rice cookers on the market these days as it is.

Re: Sony should return to its roots

[sk999]

The real roots were tape recorders. Those were the first Sony (consumer) products I saw. Also, transistor radios. Next came portable (B&W) TV's - ones that would fit on a small table. My brother bought one and then invented the world's first remote control - it was a long stick with wooden attachment that let him change the channel while remaining in bed. Lazy SOB. I did have a Trinitron for a while, and while awesome for its time, it has long been shipped off to recycling.

Re: Sony should return to its roots

[TapeCutter]

Yeah, I had a luggable trinitron that worked for 30+yrs, the only reason my daughter threw it out was because all the (Aussie) TV stations changed to the new frequency. Sony had a reputation for quality and innovation in the 70's & 80's but they pissed that away, I think the rot set in after their huge success with the walkman. They don't need to sell off the rest of the company's arms to fix that.

Re:Sony should return to its roots

[Mitreya]

They should dump the "content" divisions..the movie studio and record company

So you are saying they should dump the high-margin division that thrives in the non-competitive, cartel-controlled market with imaginary losses (Hollywood accounting, anyone?)

They should do whatever it takes to return to being the world's best electronics company

...and go back to focusing on low-margin division where they would have to face real competition and where all expenses and losses are, in fact, real and not made up?

That sounds like an excellent plan.

Re:Sony should return to its roots

[PRMan]

Their roots or their rootkits? Just so we're clear here...

Re:Sony should return to its roots

[Bing Tsher E]

Sony was never the world's best electronics company.

Not even the worlds best consumer electronics company.

There have been really good consumer electronic products from Sony in the past. But never the best, except maybe in the category of the Trinitron. But that was a long time ago now.

Re:Sony should return to its roots

[thegarbz]

They should do whatever it takes to return to being the world's best electronics company

By selling off the division that makes them money and keeping the ones which don't?

Clearly if you were CEO Sony wouldn't exist anymore with that kind of thinking.

Re: Sony should return to its roots

[aliquis]

What Sony really need is of course more non-standard shit which only they use and which cost a fortune!!

Re:Sony should return to its roots

[retroworks]

Sony should be admired for diversifying decades ago. In the early 90s, they were one of the most respected device manufacturers, but they saw that the money was in content and diversified into Playstation and Sony Pictures. Microsoft moved into hardware (Xbox), and Apple stayed in both. Samsung stayed purely hardware, for the most part. Palm tried to keep both OS (GeOS) and make hardware.

You could fault a lot of Sony's moves, but they survived the turmoil in display devices. Did not make a big smartphone play early enough. But just saying they should return to hardware manufacturing is really ignorant of Pacific rim economies, Japan in particular. They may not succeed, or may retreat into a camera niche, but Sony aspired well and failed where many others failed.

Re: Sony should return to its roots

[PopeRatzo]

I had one of the Sony "tummy buster" portable TVs when I was a young'n. Used to watch White Sox games in bed on school nights.

Re:Sony should return to its roots

[Dutch Gun]

Also, in many cases, large, corporate brand names in Japan are used for a wide variety of products, unlike many American brands. Think about Yamaha, and how many different types of products they create: Motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles, musical instruments, automobile engines, industrial robots, electronics, scooters, and probably a bunch more I can't think of. American companies may have a parent company, but often retain a market-specific brand name rather than taking on the parent company name.

Re:Sony should return to its roots

[drolli]

Yes. I think they should focus at what they are really good: Design of working products (typically for me, the smaller stuff like Headphones, Bluetooth headsets, etc).

The deisgn of the subnotebook (down to the Vaio P series) was excellent (over 10 years, whenever i wanted to buy a notebook they were always in the last round of competitors due to the excellent design).

One problem of sony was that it was focused on Japan (i lived there for four years and Sony has many Products which were taergeted at the Jp market)

Fuck the playstation

[dunkelfalke]

TFA writer is seriously myopic thinking that his console is more important than anything else. It would be s shame for Sony - for sll their faults they still are a quite impressive manufacturer - to be reduced to a one trick pony. And for what? A bloody game console? Why would anyone need another Nintendo? Besides, consoles cripple games. Deus Ex 2 could have been a much better game if not for consoles. And as for the xperia phones, they are actually decent. ANT+ support and IP55/56 is very handy outdoors.

Re:Fuck the playstation

[rmdingler]

Sony may not always be the smartest kids in the room, but they will not relegate their revenue stream to fewer segments of technology.

Too many companies get rendered irrelevant by not diversifying. Looking at you Blockbuster: After years of domination of the block and mortar video rental and sales niche, they passed up a chance to purchase the fledgling Netflix for $50 million US in 2000. (Current Netflix market cap is $28+ Billion.) Carl Icahn waged a proxy fight for control in 2005, and by 2010 the once great concern filed for Bankruptcy.

It's precisely why you see Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Google making what appear to be crazy stupid acquisitions.

Re:Fuck the playstation

[blackraven14250]

I've posted this elsewhere in more detail, but Blockbuster, due to the spinoff from Viacom, was saddled with about a billion in debt. That debt didn't exactly help when Icahn ended up ousting Antioco, who was trying to modernize the brand, and replaced him with Keyes, who was trying to be the brick and mortar shop of the past. That's just two examples of times Blockbuster the brand got completely fucked by outside interests. There's plenty of others in the chain's history, like Bill Fields being fired.

Re:Fuck the playstation

[thegarbz]

A bloody game console?

Well aside from the huge bias in the article, the Playstation division is Sony's most profitable along with Sony Entertainment. While the article reads like a whining iFan who's upset he can't get his iPad to work, the actual core strategy in the biased article actually mirrors what the Sony CEO has stated, every underperforming business unit is potentially on the chopping block.

Re:Fuck the playstation

[usrusr]

Playstation might be successful now, but focusing the company by ditching everything else does not magically improve the chances of the next generation not failing. Selling divisions whenever they go through a weak phase means selling for a dime and since every part of the company will see such a phase of relative weakness at one point it is a reliable algorithm to end with an empty shell of a company.

Re:Fuck the playstation

[CronoCloud]

And for what? A bloody game console? Why would anyone need another Nintendo?

Hey there "mate" and I call you "mate" coz you're obviously one of those UK anti-console zealots, thanks to Sir Clive getting the UK government to protect him from the likes of Nintendo, Sega and Sony.

Besides, consoles cripple games. Deus Ex 2 could have been a much better game if not for consoles.

Console...singular. DX2 was Xbox only. DX1 however, was on the PS2, with mouse/keyboard support. Blame marketers for what they thought about Xboxers for DX2, not consoles in general.

Re:Fuck the playstation

[thegarbz]

It's not a case of weak phase, it's a case of core focus.

TVs may look like a weak phase but they haven't made money for Sony in 10 years. They have lost a great deal of market share to the likes of LG and Samsung who opened their panels to the world. Then they bet the R&D farm on OLED only to get obliterated by Samsung who got to the market first with a usable panel and now has 97% of the market share while Sony were still demoing prototypes with $45000 price tags. A very similar thing is happening with mobile phones.

A weak phase implies that they have the strength and ability to pull themselves out and become a market player. The question is how much investment and effort is required to do so, and also how much would it be worth in the end. That second part is key as the TV and mobile industry is on tight margins with low profits. Spending R&D budget there is not necessarily the best option.

Companies re-invent themselves all the time. Consider the alternative where Sony was the electronics company and only the electronics company. Investors would have pulled the plug on them years ago if only their electronics division existed.

out of TV ? huh ?

[sh0rtie]

I thought Sony Professional was the industry standard for TV cameras, video mixing consoles, and a whole heap of professional film/tv/radio/audio/studio products, i don't think they would exit a market that they have massive saturation in.

Re:out of TV ? huh ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Their DSLRs kick ass, and are they are the only manufacturer that has innovated at all on those in the last 5 years. I wish I had one, but I'm too invested in Canon lenses.

Re:out of TV ? huh ?

[Aighearach]

The Pentax K3-II has an awesome innovation which is that instead of a static low-pass filter (to prevent moire) that you have to either include or not include at time of manufacture, they vibrate the dust screen for the low-pass. So you can turn it on and off. Saves needing a different camera for landscape and portrait. (moire effects most often happen when photographing fabrics)

I did hear that Sony invested in a new and bigger sensor, which is great, but just a natural progression of what the whole industry has been doing for decades. Nothing innovative at all there. I know their professional stuff has lots of innovations, but none of that is DSLR.

What innovation has Sony contributed to DSLRs lately?

Keep the cameras!

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony's cameras are amazing. Easily best in class in (most of) the markets they compete in.

Their new action cameras are also quite good and offer better than feature parity with the heavily advertised GoPro brand, but at better prices. (Though GoPros tend to have larger image sensors - But curiously with inferior low light performance)

Sony's small image sensors are also top notch and are found in the best phones.

Sony really seems to fall flat when advertising their camera products, though.

Re:Keep the cameras!

[Aighearach]

Sony is doing good with their cameras and at this point they can compete in every major digital camera category. They're clearly not "best in class" though. But you claim more than just best-in-class, you claim they are easily best-in-class. Which is a joke. Fans should remain happy that their favorite brand has offerings that are comparable to Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Minolta. Claiming they're "easily" better than those turns a positive review into a bit of a joke, though.

Disclaimer: I've been taking pictures all week with a nice Sony camera. It is as good as other offerings in the same category, and like all the others, it blows away whatever brand camera from 5 years ago that people are usually comparing their new camera to. ;) But it isn't any better than a new other-brand. It has better low-light performance than the brands with better detail, of course. And worse low-light performance than the ones with worse detail. There was a time when some of the major brands were way ahead, but now there are fine differences that are related to tradeoffs, with no clear "best-of"'s.

Shallow and ignorant

[Kohath]

Sony is a huge company with a lot of divisions. These articles are written from a western tech consumer point of view. Western tech consumers don't know about the non-consumer, non-tech, or non-western-facing business that Sony has.

Rather than reading this article, find something better to do with your time.

Re:Shallow and ignorant

[JBMcB]

You're right. Everyone knows Sony makes most of it's money selling insurance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05...

Re:Shallow and ignorant

[bloodhawk]

Exactly, I don't like Sony but the article is just so bad it is laughable. playstation itself is a tiny portion of Sony and not even are particularly profitable part. We see the same problems when consumer types write articles on Microsoft as well. They simply have no understanding of the depth or breadth of the company or where there income flows come from.

Re:Shallow and ignorant

[thegarbz]

Rather than reading this article, find something better to do with your time.

I did. I read news articles and comments from the CEO during earnings reports.

- From the CEO's point of view Sony is a huge company with lots of divisions..... and it sounds like the company is going to get a lot smaller very soon. The only divisions the CEO has publicly defended were Playstation, Entertainment, and a subset of their Electronic component manufacture (specifically image sensors).
- Absent from discussions were Cameras, and general electronics seems neutral.
- TV and Mobile are to undergo a drastic overhaul and will likely be sold if they can't be turned around.

The east and west are not all that different.

Re:Shallow and ignorant

[hey!]

True, but to the degree Sony ties one product line to another it's clear that Sony itself is trying to yoke those divisions to each other for marketing purposes. And to the degree that's true, Sony would be better off spinning off those divisions.

Why? Because this kind of synergy is the kind of thing that seems to make compelling sense inside the company, but is obviously insane to anyone *outside* the company, especially consumers, who see the strategy for what it is: overly complicated and obviously restrictive.

It's different if you enjoy a monopoly in one area. If you could only buy a game console from Sony, then anyone who's a gamer would consider buying a Sony smartphone to play his games. But if you deduct all the gamers who don't have a Sony console, or who have more than one console, and compare what's left to the size of the smartphone market and Sony's share of *that*, it seems a bit farfetched to beleive that an exclusive yoking of Sony consoles to Sony phones is going to drive significant sales to Sony phones or to Sony consoles.

Re:Shallow and ignorant

[alfredo]

I want a Sony A7 II, or their a6000. Both killer cameras.

One trick pony is not the way to go

[rjejr]

PS4 as an emphasis and dropping the Vita and PS TV may be a good idea, but focusing the whole company on videogames seems like a good idea only to people who have never heard of Atari, Commodore 64, 3DO or any of the other failed company in the videogame business.

Re:Sony should only work on what I'm interested in

[l0ungeb0y]

Dropping the mobile division would be best. It's super competitive and Sony hasn't had much success in the mobile phone market since the early digital days in the 90s. Seems they would do well to sell off their mobile interests to one of the companies seeking to enter the smart phone market, just their IP and facilities alone would be worth several hundred million

Insanity: Bet the farm on a dumbed-down-PC???

[UnknownSoldier]

Why the hell would Sony focus on _one_ division that basically sells a dumbed-down crippled PC ?

They already bailed on the PC market last year

Their TV division loses money hand over fist:

Sony, the parent company doesn't stick to selling insurance policies. It sells TVs, too, even though it canâ(TM)t manage to do so profitably. Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai said the company will lose money on its television business for the 10th year in a row, with the red ink for TVs this time amounting to Â¥ 25 billion yen.

And you want them to focus on a shitty under-clocked PC ???

Can we mod article: -1 Clueless Author

Re:Insanity: Bet the farm on a dumbed-down-PC???

[cheesybagel]

It is hardly surprising that their TV division bleeds money. They sold nearly every manufacturing plant they had and basically ship TV with Samsung manufactured LCD screens. The only thing they make themselves is probably the software and the exterior case design. The TV software itself is mostly Google TV so uh...

Re:Insanity: Bet the farm on a dumbed-down-PC???

[UnknownSoldier]

Read you even *look* at the graph??

437 Financial Services (i.e. Insurance)
271 Image Sensors
200 PlayStation <-- ooh, look in third place ...

-1 Clueless poster who can't:

a) read -- https://infogr.am/sony_profits...
b) spell -- Cluseless (sic.)

Re:Insanity: Bet the farm on a dumbed-down-PC???

[UnknownSoldier]

Thanks for the info. about the TV plants and Samsung LCD screens.

Any idea how much profit (or loss) their OLED division is making? And which division it is under?

Re:Insanity: Bet the farm on a dumbed-down-PC???

[CronoCloud]

I don't have time to game so when I get a chance I almost always find myself having to download a new version.

What, you on 1Mbps DSL or something? Forget to turn on background updates? You do know that it will download updates on it's own right?

Re:Insanity: Bet the farm on a dumbed-down-PC???

[thegarbz]

Oh yeah, let's not focus on one of the top 3 money makers and instead keep pouring money into the failing TV business and failing computer business like the GP was suggesting.

You sir are an economic genius right up there among the greats. Your economic credentials and ability to call out spelling mistakes would make you a prime candidate for a CEO of say HP or Yahoo.

But Sony actually has a future and still makes money so go and fuck up some other company with your retarded views.

Re:Insanity: Bet the farm on a dumbed-down-PC???

[UnknownSoldier]

I, the GP, never said nor suggested "they keep pouring money into a failing TV business."

Learn to read. (It might help with your spelling at the very least.)

If Sony was smart they would *exit* the TV business after *failing* for 10. Straight. Years.

Sony is perfectly capable of fucking up the company all by themselves. Let's see, Mobile had a loss of -1578, more then 3.5 times what the Financial Services makes.

From 2006 until 2009 the PlayStation division lost 4.6 Billion

In 2012 they lost 2.8 Billion

In 2014 they lost 78 million

/sarcasm, Oh I'm sorry, I forgot Sony already has an economic genius right there! How else could they continue to constantly lose money on the PlayStation! *snicker*

Maybe they should take lessons from Nintendo on how to be profitable.

But keep drinking the Sony Kool-Aid there buddy.

Re:Insanity: Bet the farm on a dumbed-down-PC???

[thegarbz]

Their TV division loses money hand over fist:

And you want them to focus on a shitty under-clocked PC ???

You're a fucking retard.

Re:Insanity: Bet the farm on a dumbed-down-PC???

[jaklode]

Sony TVs are among the best, though. Incredible build quality and picture quality. Stupid Samsung stuff cannot even come close to that.

Re:Sony should only work on what I'm interested in

[TapeCutter]

Sounds like someone wants Sony to give up doing everything except the thing the journalist is interested in.

I suspect the 'journalist' is actually a disgruntled 8yo who recently stopped blaming Santa's elves for the poor quality..

Ditching the walled garden makes sense

[Radical Moderate]

I'm not sure they should dump everything else, but limiting Playstation compatibility to only Sony mobile products is ridiculous. Apple doesn't even try to get away with that much these days, Sony's just shooting themselves in the foot.

Huge risk

[Chess_the_cat]

Who's to say consoles will even be a thing in 10 years? I wouldn't be surprised if computers and TVs converge entirely in the near future making consoles obsolete. Want a game? Stream one to your TV from Steam. No consoles required.

Re:Huge risk

[drinkypoo]

I wouldn't be surprised if computers and TVs converge entirely in the near future making consoles obsolete.

That's what a game console does. Consoles tend to not be very reliable due to the very thin margins so you can't reasonably converge them with televisions, so you have a box next to the TV which is capable of displaying video. Sooner or later, all video will be delivered via the internet (or via the same technologies, anyway, from your ISP/content provider) and the box will be able to provide all of it, they'll stop putting tuners in televisions, and we can use the frequency space now occupied by television for something else.

Android-based gaming is about to eat up the space Nintendo has been occupying, but there's still room in the market for big games consoles for people who don't want to dedicate a lot of time to their gaming habit but still want shiny shiny.

Re:Huge risk

[CronoCloud]

Who's to say consoles will even be a thing in 10 years? I wouldn't be surprised if computers and TVs converge entirely in the near future making consoles obsolete. Want a game? Stream one to your TV from Steam. No consoles required.

You'll still need some kind of small box or built in console functionality in the TV...considering how many Slashdotters don't want smartTV.... I think there will still be boxes. Besides, you can ALREADY stream games to existing consoles. There's this thing called Playstation Now, have you heard of it? Works on the Vita, Vita TV, PS3, PS4 and certain Bravia TV's. Soon it will work on some Samsung models as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

But some people...like many slashdotters, will still want to "own" their games and will still play locally downloaded/installed titles rather than stream them. The technology has limites. IMHO, game streaming services will supplement full titles not replace them.

no-cursive is the default

[pbjones]

Sony makes great electronics, why dump them for some shitty console?

Sony hasn't been an electronics company for

[SallyBowls]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05... Sony, it is suggested, might be better off just selling insurance. Or just making movies and music. But not electronics. A new report from the investment banking firm Jefferies delivered a harsh assessment of Sony’s electronics business. “Electronics is its Achilles’ heel and, in our view, it is worth zero,” wrote Atul Goyal, consumer technology analyst for Jefferies, in the report, released this week. ... Its financial arm accounts for 63 percent of Sony’s total operating profit last year. Life insurance has been its biggest moneymaker over the last decade, earning the company 933 billion yen ($9.07 billion) in operating profit in the 10 years that ended in March. Sony’s film and music divisions, which produced hits like the Spider-Man movies and “Zero Dark Thirty” and recorded musicians like the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the electronic music duo Daft Punk, have contributed $7 billion to the company’s bottom line over the last decade. In that time, Sony’s electronics division has lost a cumulative $8.5 billion. Hardly Sony’s crown jewels, experts say.

Exits don't cure anything.

[v(*_*)vvvv]

Sony just sucks right now. No matter what it does, it's failing. And when they fail, companies like to glorify their exits as some forward thinking strategic move, but it's all just spin. If they didn't suck, they'd be doing it. Sony already "exited" their Vaio business, and they also "exited" my neighborhood mall by closing the Sony store... When Sony was awesome, it "entered" the TV market, the computer market, the game console market... This is all just signs that the company sucks, and a company that can't stop bleeding money is forced to take it up a notch. It has to start cutting of its limbs.

IBM is a good US example. They spun off their hard drive business, their computer business... they had a bunch of commercials about what I could hardly tell, and now they are firing a bunch of people, whilst denying it of course, saying they're just "moving people around while dropping a few". But whatever. Companies that are successful hardly ever fire. Toyota keeps hiring. Google keeps hiring. All these stories written for shareholders are moot.

Re:Exits don't cure anything.

[thegarbz]

Exits do cure things when a company loses its edge in one industry.

Anyone can make a computer.
Anyone can make a TV.

Sony exited the computer market for that very reason. They were losing money. TVs are the same. They have lost money on TVs for 10 years running. Are you suggesting that they keep a division that is losing money in the face of fierce competition from Samsung and LG?

The difference between IBM and Sony is that IBM is now effectively a consultant, whereas Sony is a manufacturer who manufactures too many different things, and some of them are bombing spectacularly. So why should Sony produce TVs and report losses year over year when they could instead be focusing on the things they are good at?

You too would cut off limbs if you suddenly had an extra arm grow from your shoulder and reach for your own neck.

Re:Exits don't cure anything.

[0123456]

Anyone can make a computer.
Anyone can make a TV.

But what can Sony make?

Their quality is poor compared to the 90s (I still have my late-90s Sony camcorder, and it still works), and their hardware is crippled by market segmentation (can't have feature X enabled on this version of the camera because we can sell it to the pro market in a black case with that feature enabled in the firmware for $1,000 more), and/or DRM (can't record 44.1kHz on DAT because you might be an EVIL CD PIRATE! can't play foreign DVDs on this DVD player because it might be one of our movies).

Re:Exits don't cure anything.

[thegarbz]

Are you not paying attention to the argument? Sony has several profitable divisions, one of them is the Playstation.

That is the argument being made in the biased article and also the very real indications that the CEO has given. Everything is potentially on the chopping block except for Sony Entertainment, Playstation, and the division which manufactures CCD and CMOS sensors, though they haven't gone as far to say that the camera business is safe.

Re:Exits don't cure anything.

[schnell]

But whatever. Companies that are successful hardly ever fire. Toyota keeps hiring. Google keeps hiring.

WHAAAAAAA?

You might wish to let these ex-Toyota workers know. Or these ones. Or the 4,000 ex-Motorola-turned-Google employees Google laid off because they were - wait for it - exiting a line of business they didn't think they wanted to be in anymore.

Good companies get out of bad businesses all the time. Usually they fire the people who worked in that business. It sucks but it's true, and to think that good companies never exit lines of business or lay people off is insane.

Re:Don't stop there

[ganjadude]

actually, TWC is its own company being spun off from Time Warner a few years ago

The console for the master race

[tepples]

Console gaming is not a commodity market at all. You can't buy a game and then play it on whatever console was on sale that week. There are no generics, and there is no interoperability.

The iBuyPower SBX looks like a console but interoperates with Steam and other sources of PC games. It's like the railroads: they lost parts of the market because they thought they were in the railroad industry but in fact were in the broader long-haul transport industry. Sony likewise needs to decide whether it wants to be in the console industry or the broader set-top computer entertainment industry.

Re:The console for the master race

[Aighearach]

Right, but does the existence of a PC disguised as console and preloaded with Steam really say anything about Sony?

Sony is in the console industry, and the broader entertainment industry already, and they have a history in set-top boxes.

The railroad example only works in one direction; a company that ignores the larger market. It doesn't work to tell us about a company that already exists in the larger market, and other larger markets, and other large markets, and that sees many of these not being profitable.

The railroads lost out because they failed to even compete. Sony isn't in that situation, and the current restructuring plans don't implicate that situation. Sony is instead exiting from some areas it failed in, and moving around the rest so that the profit centers are in the corporate package together, and other parts are hidden away in owned subsidiaries. From a nerd perspective the whole thing can be summarized as, "some Sony divisions will be getting new names to make the bean-counters happy."

Steam being disruptive and having further disruptive potential is a totally different thing, and some brand of PC-fake-console is irrelevant to that, and doesn't drag Sony in.

Re:The console for the master race

[0123456]

Right, but does the existence of a PC disguised as console and preloaded with Steam really say anything about Sony?

Indeed. Unlike the Playstation, which is, oh, a PC disguised as a console and preloaded with some Sony crap.

Re:The console for the master race

[Aighearach]

A Playstation is a proprietary black box, regardless of what is under the hood. It doesn't interoperate. The characterization has nothing to do with however crappy the Sony crap is, but rather with what you can do with it, and what it is marketed as being able to do. A Playstation is a totally proprietary black box with a whole proprietary ecosystem built around it.

The whatever-its-called Steam box is just a generic PC with no special ecosystem whose entire purpose is just to run the same software available already for generic PCs.

Re:The console for the master race

[CronoCloud]

but rather with what you can do with it, and what it is marketed as being able to do.

It's marketed for playing games, and watching movies.

The whatever-its-called Steam box is just a generic PC with no special ecosystem whose entire purpose is just to run the same software available already for generic PCs.

Steam on any platform is an ecosystem in it's own right, and SteamOS is most certainly a specific non-generic ecosystem. It's Linux, after all, and DOESN"T run the same software as what most would call a "generic PC".

Re:The console for the master race

[Aighearach]

If you don't agree that linux boxes are generic PCs, I'm not sure how you'll even participate in the conversation. I guess you'll just be talking past everybody else.

Normally these are understood terms.

It is a generic PC, because you can replace the hardware and run the same software. Because the software is portable to any PC-platform. That is the difference between "generic PC" and "proprietary black box." With a black box, you can't run that software on different hardware. You have to buy Branded Console, or you don't get to use that ecosystem. With Steam, the ecosystem is portable. That means you can use it on generic machines. That makes it potentially disruptive. For years it existed as an option but without being very disruptive, for 2 reasons; generic PCs didn't have good enough graphics hardware (I'm talking the average system that consumers actually bought) to run games that competed with consoles, and there weren't many games written for the platform. But it thrived as a niche offering. Now, the average generic PC has good enough graphics to make any game genre playable. And it is a popular platform to develop games for. So now it is becoming a lot more disruptive. In the past gamers would use Steam and a console. Now, I hear people say, again and again, "I stopped buying console games because Steam."

Re:The console for the master race

[CronoCloud]

If you don't agree that linux boxes are generic PCs, I'm not sure how you'll even participate in the conversation.

Linux boxes are PC's but they aren't the same "platform" as other PC's because their OS and software stack is different. you're putting too much emphasis on hardware and not enough on software. For example Steam on OSX, Linux and Windows...are not the same platform. They don't even have the same content or features

It is a generic PC, because you can replace the hardware and run the same software. Because the software is portable to any PC-platform.

Changing the software, changes the platform, no matter what the hardware.

With a black box, you can't run that software on different hardware. You have to buy Branded Console, or you don't get to use that ecosystem.

That's not really a problem for most people, is it. They want the software that runs on the black box so they buy the black box. And besides, Steam is essentially an attempt to bring some of the qualities of "black boxes" to PC gaming.

With Steam, the ecosystem is portable.

No, it's not, Steam on OSX, Steam on Linux and Steam on Windows, aren't the really same ecosystem. It's actually 3 platforms, not one.

That means you can use it on generic machines.

Even on Windows, Steam on some budget dual-core laptop with intel graphics (still the most common hardware on steam) is not really the same platform as Steam on some i7 with quad-sli.

In the past gamers would use Steam and a console. Now, I hear people say, again and again, "I stopped buying console games because Steam."

Where do you hear that? Selection bias much? If you're a PC partisan sort of guy you're going to hang out with other PC Partisans or new converts...especially in Europe.

Re:The console for the master race

[Aighearach]

I guess I'm just not clique-y enough to be a European. It is very odd to get to the end of that and find that sort of appeal to idiocy. You're right, I'm not a platform partisan. People that stupid should be embarrassed to admit it.

The existence of a thing called "selection bias" doesn't make experience worthless or irrelevant. It just means it isn't objective data and can't be used as such. It is perfectly reasonable to base opinions on actual experience. And indeed, if I was deep in an echo chamber where all my friends were so much the same as me that we even used the same computers, it would have little value. But if I'm not in that sort of echo chamber, then it may be that I have at least a rough idea that there is a trend that exists among some people. I only have to know some of those people to know about it. Maybe there is a larger trend in another direction, and indeed, I might miss it. So if I used that experience as objective data, or as complete data, then that would be crazy. But OTOH if I simply use it to know that such people exist, that it is a trend, then it is not bias at all; it is just the parts I'm aware of.

As to the rest, you're trying to exclude the standard meanings of the words by using other meanings, and you bait-and-switch back and forth from just talking about Steam in general and the specific clients they put out. It is true that there are different meanings of "platform" and that they overlap, but the challenge for you is to understand the meaning I used. The existence of other meanings doesn't somehow refute what I said. Re-read, keep re-reading until it is a logical point that you disagree with. Then you'll know you understood it. If it looks not only like something you disagree with, but something that is factually incorrect, keep parsing; you didn't understand it yet.

Low margin vs. High demand

[tlambert]

Electronics is low margin because of commodity parts and consumer demand for interoperability. Think, microwaves and computers. You don't need a special brand of microwave to heat Packaged Dinner Product.

Low margin vs. High demand

There's room for both low margin, and there's high demand items in consumer electronics.

When I needed a Windows laptop, before Bootcamp existed so that Windows could run on Apple hardware, I bought a Sony Vaio: it was the most beautiful non-Apple laptop on the market at the time, and when you are going into a VC to pitch your idea to them, you want to dress to impress, and that includes the machine on which you are giving your powerpoint on your business plan.

Vaio's were a high demand item because they had very good esthetics. A lot of other Sony products were higher margin than their competitors as well, because they were aimed at the high esthetic market.

The PlayStation is really a terrible product, comparatively speaking; the XBox is a much better product, based on Microsoft being able to leverage it to get game onto their desktop platforms as well (at some point), and potentially onto Windows Phones, as well (at some point), because the underlying platform technology is Windows on all three.

I think the person writing the article is a gamer who has drank the PlayStation Kool Aid, and wants Sony to concentrate on it, even though Sony is one PSN hack away from losing out on a holiday season, as they did previously. A single product company is just too vulnerable to single point of failure due to externalities.

It's a dumb idea because it would be a bad business decision on their part.

Re:Low margin vs. High demand

[Aighearach]

I agree their is room for low-margin electronics. In fact, I only use low margin stuff because I hate proprietary crap, and high margin always means you're paying for label, and labels only have value when they're proprietary. Aesthetics aside, Sony is perceived as being a stylish brand, so it was a good choice for you, and were probably making better use of the label than any actual aesthetics. And it isn't clear that "better" aesthetics increases margin outside of brand-association. I think in general it is assumed that spending more money improving the aesthetics will decrease the profit margin, everything else being equal. There is obviously a lot more subtlety to it, though.

The last "console" I owned was a Sega Genesis. Luckily, I sold it off to a guy from the local BBS right before the resale price crashed. I guess around `97.

XBox is a good example of a low-margin console, where it was sold at a loss because the game prices were inflated to make it up. The margin of the combined XBox console+games business is very high, though; much higher than any commodity consumer electronics. I'm not convinced it has tie-in potential that has either benefited MS, or will after not doing so for a decade.

Is there a use-case for tie-ins with desktops? I can't see it. Phones in general I can see it as an edge case, but nobody is going to choose a phone OS based on it. There isn't a useful enough feature demonstrated. It would need to be portable, an app that runs on different phones, not a driver connecting console sales with phone sales.

Sony has higher console tie-in potential than MS IMO, because of their media properties. It isn't as interesting as it sounds though; the clearer business decision is to NOT make a max play at the tie-ins, but what to see which movies are successful, and put the game development work in afterwards. Then they've lost any advantage. They'd have to be better at making predicable box-office hits than anybody is. And when you're doing it afterwards it doesn't matter.

My prediction is that Steam will wipe out the console game premium before anybody "solves" how to leverage their proprietary tie-ins. And then consoles will just be embedded PCs with low margins, and nobody will waste money researching tie-in scams. Luckily for Sony, they won't be wiped out because they won't have followed the advice in TFS.

Re:Low margin vs. High demand

[tlambert]

Yes, because VCs are so impressed by a good-looking laptop. I mean, forget the numbers on the spreadsheet, this candidate has an ugly Thinkpad.

VCs tend to be impressed by polish.

Typically, if you take an idea to a VC, unless you have some IP tied up, or there is significant work entailed to get to a first mover advantage, they are already thinking about one of their go-to teams that can take your idea and run with it. Frankly, ideas are a dime a dozen, and beyond that, the only thing that matters is an ability to execute, and that means they are not investing in your product, per se, they are investing in your market segment and the team.

Usually, they will prefer their team to the team that you have put together because they are familiar with their team. Their team has a track record, and they have an existing relationship with the teams they typically work with on new projects. It's one of the reasons there are so many serial entrepreneurs, and so few new entrepreneurs that make it past the friends-and-family or angel funding stage of their startup into series A financing.

If you are a new entrepreneur, or someone with a proven technical track record, who has never been on "The VP Gravy Train", unless you are already profitable (and are therefore trying to give away a very large chunk of your company and control of your board of directors, in exchange for capital to bring your venture to scale), you need every advantage going into the meeting that you can lay your grubby little hands on.

Packaging of yourself is therefore almost as important as the content of the presentation itself.

So yeah, they're "impressed by a good looking laptop", if that's part of the overall package impression that convinces them that your team is the right team, and that they won't need to replace you, the founder, with one of their go-to CEOs, or one of their VPs they've been cultivating to take a CEO position at some point in the future, and "Gee, I think it's time we gave Frank a shot at a CEO position; what do you think, other managing partners of this large venture fund?".

If you are a technical person, you will be lucky to last in the C suite much beyond (mostly) losing control of your board of directors, which is going to happen some time between closing Series A and closing Series B. Typically, your series B will be contingent on you losing control to the point that they can replace you at any point their confidence falters, and they decide "It's time to bring in adult supervision".

PS: One of the reasons there are so few women in higher up positions is that the women haven't taken their paydays from being an early employee, and acted as their own angel investor in a new company that has been successful. You kind of have to be a gambling addict to get to that point in the game, so that you are a known quantity. That said, technical companies in the Fortune 500 have done 2X as well asall of the other Fortune 500 companies, in terms of percentages, so tech is about 2X as egalitarian as any other industry in that regard.

Re:Low margin vs. High demand

[CronoCloud]

The last "console" I owned was a Sega Genesis. Luckily, I sold it off to a guy from the local BBS right before the resale price crashed. I guess around `97.

Then you should understand that some might think you're clueless about console gaming in general since you have little familiarity with anything past the Genesis.

My prediction is that Steam will wipe out the console game premium before anybody "solves" how to leverage their proprietary tie-ins.

Steam's been around since..what is it, 2004? With the first third party games in 2005? It didn't wipe out the PS3, did it? What you don't understand is that to console gamers, we already have "steam" we call it PSN or Xbox Markeplace/Live.

Re:Low margin vs. High demand

[Aighearach]

Right, because when you buy crap you get magical insights. Also known as bias.

Perhaps you are tense-challenged. Sorry. Were you born that way? And yeah, if you think nothing has changed for Steam between 2005 and now, wow. There are real reasons why in 2005 it was not yet serious competition, and why now it is. People now who only buy games on Steam were not considering that possible in 2005. They'd have basically been giving up gaming. Now it is a real option. Are you sure you know what Steam is?

I notice the "we" in the last part. So you have some magical knowledge from having a consumer purchase under your belt. The little proprietary mind gnome is in there throwing pixy dust at your thoughts on the subject. I guess it just blasted the whole concept of commodity hardware out of the words as they were coming into your brain. How else could you read what I wrote, which was obviously too long for you, and think that having a proprietary service locked to a black box is the same thing as a service that runs on any generic box? Especially in the context of consoles, which you claim to know more than me about through the process of purchasing one.

From my comments it is pretty obvious that I do understand the difference between what "you" have, and what anybody can have using Steam, with any PC, even a generic low margin PC disguised as a black box. You seem to have ignored all of my arguments, and only figured out I'm not "one of [us]" so I must not know anything. It is either the magical console fairy telling you that, or your neckbeard has become sentient. Or, you just didn't even comprehend my words.

Re:Low margin vs. High demand

[CronoCloud]

Did being a Jerkass come with your Steam account, or with your Aspergers?

Are you sure you know what Steam is?

yeah, it's basically PSN for PC users. I even have a steam account.

So you have some magical knowledge from having a consumer purchase under your belt. The little proprietary mind gnome is in there throwing pixy dust at your thoughts on the subject.

You haven't owned a console since the genesis...doesn't that mean you don't know much about modern consoles? And yet you are making a judgement on how steam is so superior without any experience with how modern consoles work.

How else could you read what I wrote, which was obviously too long for you, and think that having a proprietary service locked to a black box is the same thing as a service that runs on any generic box?

Steam will run on a generic machine but it's still a walled garden in and of itself and it's own ecosystem not that different from PSN.

Especially in the context of consoles, which you claim to know more than me about through the process of purchasing one.

Not just one, several over the years. Since I've owned more doesn't that pretty much mean I do know more...since again, your last console was a Genesis. So when you say that Steam will "wipe out consoles" can you really expect people to not call you on your lack of experience?

Re:Low margin vs. High demand

[Aighearach]

I don't have a Steam account. LOL

Why are you trying to make a medical condition that many people on Slashdot have into a pejorative? Doesn't it seem especially lame to you? Do you think it makes you sound informed, or like an asshole? Do you think I'll even read what else you have to say?

Re:Low margin vs. High demand

[CronoCloud]

I don't have a Steam account. LOL

What? Don't you think it's presumptuous to make blanket statements and judgements about Steam vs whatever when you have zero familiarity with either? Using a car analogy that would be like me dissing the ride/handling/performance/seats of a Saab when I've never even been in one.

Why are you trying to make a medical condition that many people on Slashdot have into a pejorative?

I wouldn't say "many". Some people "claim" to have it. IMHO most just try to use it as a "get out of jail free card" for pedantic bullshit, axe-grinding and sometimes just being a self-important ass.

Re:Low margin vs. High demand

[Aighearach]

So, you think when you hand money to somebody, some sort of analytical knowledge of their business practices is transferred by osmosis? Do you have to make all your purchases under water, or do you use a reverse-osmosis film?

LOL buying stuff doesn't enhance your ability to understand it. D'Oh!

Re:Low margin vs. High demand

[CronoCloud]

LOL buying stuff doesn't enhance your ability to understand it. D'Oh!

Buying a PS3/PS4 DOES mean you understand how it and it's ecosystem works in a general sense, better than someone who DOESN"T own one.

But you're the self important knows-all Aigheearach who thinks everyone else but him can't comprehend or understand things.

Slashbait

[bill_mcgonigle]

Rather than reading this article, find something better to do with your time.

You fell for the Slashbait again.

Somebody at Dice enjoys saying, "this is the stupidest fucking thing anybody on the Internet has said today - I'll push it to the front page so everybody can comment about how stupid it is and generate a bunch of page views in the process."

The very best we can do is to leave them alone so it's all GNAA and AC FP's on these.

Predicted end

[RubberDogBone]

One of Samsung's most important motivating goals has long been to utterly destroy Sony. They saw Sony not only as a competitor but also as a representative of a super-successful Japanese company in a country where Japan is viewed very bitterly and resented. Samsung resented Sony. Samsung made it their goal to kill that company, and it can be argued the have done exactly that, though certainly not alone. The end result is the same: Samsung is a household name across the globe, with a huge variety of products of all types.

And Sony? Aside from the PlayStation, they are largely a runner-up in most of their product segments. If Samsung wanted to challenge them on gaming, they could probably go to Microsoft and write a check for the Xbox division. But there is no need with Sony so weak everywhere else. The battle is over.

Sony still does OK in some audio lines. Their headphones are not bad. And their car audio is relatively good. That said, I am about to install my third Sony head unit in five years, because they are not durable. But they are cheap and forced other brands to bring in more features at lower price points. Sony used to bring this kind of pressure to bear in their other electronics lines. Not so much any more.

And my old Playstation first gen still works great. It happens to be the same age as my girlfriend. She thinks it's an antique (as am I for that matter, being more than twice her age) but nobody can pry her PS4 out of her hands. Don't try. I have.

Re:Predicted end

[jaklode]

Sony produces better phones than Samsung, better TVs than Samsung, better Blu-Ray Players than Samsung. Samsung only produces crap.

All maximized all the time

[tepples]

The window management policy in stock Android isn't suitable for working in one application while referring to information displayed in another application.

Re:Really?

[tepples]

So why again do you want a console?

Because console games are more likely to include split-screen or otherwise shared-screen play than major label PC games. This way you don't have to pack up the family PC and take it to a LAN party; instead, you can just bring a controller.

Cable doesn't cover everybody

[tepples]

I wouldn't be surprised if computers and TVs converge entirely in the near future making consoles obsolete.

That's what a game console does.

That or a console is a tool to prevent end users from installing community-made game mods.

Sooner or later, all video will be delivered via the internet (or via the same technologies, anyway, from your ISP/content provider)

Cable doesn't cover everybody. Good luck getting rural Internet service below $5/GB.

Android-based gaming is about to eat up the space Nintendo has been occupying

Xperia Play tried and failed. OUYA tried and failed. Everyone else just has a touch screen, which works well for point and click gaming. But some genres demand a directional pad and physical buttons, and on-screen buttons lack a clear way to position the thumb over them while watching action in the center.

Re:Cable doesn't cover everybody

[drinkypoo]

Xperia Play tried and failed. OUYA tried and failed.

Right, but people will keep trying until someone gets it right. Razer is about to take a stab at it. All it will really take is someone not trying to do too much. I don't think a new launcher is even merited, just some widgets and a different theme on Play Games. Now that there is something like meaningful game controller support, it's feasible.

Re:Cable doesn't cover everybody

[CronoCloud]

Right, but people will keep trying until someone gets it right. Razer is about to take a stab at it.

Why buy an "android console" when better already exists, that's what the 3DS and Vita are for. And you don't have to put up with F2P monetized crap like Kardashian game or Game of War, or every other crappy little phone game.

Hell, the Vita version of Minecraft is better than the Android version.

Re:Cable doesn't cover everybody

[jaklode]

Cable doesn't cover everybody. Good luck getting rural Internet service below $5/GB.

Ever heard of satellite television?

Re:Cable doesn't cover everybody

[tepples]

Sooner or later, all video will be delivered via the internet (or via the same technologies, anyway, from your ISP/content provider)

Cable doesn't cover everybody. Good luck getting rural Internet service below $5/GB.

Ever heard of satellite television?

Channel-based satellite television isn't "via the Internet", and on-demand satellite television is subject to the $5/GB toll.

Re:Cable doesn't cover everybody

[drinkypoo]

Why buy an "android console" when better already exists, that's what the 3DS and Vita are for.

I don't know if you've been keeping up with what's coming down the pike already in the land of android gaming, but Razer is about to drop a seriously fast little console for a bill plus controllers, allegedly with third party controller support ala what's built into Android. I already own software to permit me to use PS3 controllers. But the big reason why Android gaming is going to dominate the low end is the same reason why the PS4 and the Xbox 180 are PC-based, economies of scale. That's where the cheap, fast SoCs are, and low end is all about converging chips and avoiding designing any if possible.

Until recently the cheap power has been in PowerPC, before that it was in MIPS. But now it's in ARM. Android is not only the most credible operating system for ARM besides a more GNU-esque Linux, it's also available for free.

I don't know that Nintendo will go Android, in fact I suspect not, but I do strongly suspect that they will go ARM. The phone resolutions have now gone beyond HD, so the GPUs won't have any problem producing Nintendo-level graphics at true 1080p resolution. But it's clear from the general ongoing (if slow) release of Android consoles that it's going to keep happening.

Re:Cable doesn't cover everybody

[CronoCloud]

but Razer is about to drop a seriously fast little console for a bill plus controllers, allegedly with third party controller support ala what's built into Android.

It doesn't matter how fast the hardware is when most Android games aren't even a quality match for most PSone games

their marketing strategy blows...

[rosshalz]

With the latest z3 series I truly feel sorry for sony. I have a z3 compact and I cant for the love of god understand why this phone isnt selling like the first gew iphones during their prime. from what I can see, it seems like their advertising and marketing strategy sucks donkey balls (yes that's what I said). The new phones have features..useful ones at that..that no other phone has (by default.. obviously all features can be ported across in android).. like the glove mode in snowy weather.. the timeshift burst camera... the answering machine in the default phone app... NOBODY seems to know about this stuff.... Instead, all their ads talk like hopped up fashion models... come on sony. learn from samsung ..only their ad strategy,.. not their phone making skills..

Re:their marketing strategy blows...

[rosshalz]

*first few..

PS4 Is Doing Fine

[CanHasDIY]

I've been helping run the family pawn shop since about November - we have had all of ONE PS4 come into our shop, whereas I've taken in at least a half-dozen Xbones.

Take from that anecdote what you will, but it seems to me that the PS4 is doing pretty good without any extra focus.

Also Sony makes killer DVD players and televisions. I hope they don't stop making that stuff, personally.

Keep their camera/imaging dept.

[alfredo]

Right now the real innovators in the camera market is Sony and Olympus. Sony is the supplier of sensors for many of the top camera brands.Olympus uses the same Sony Sensor on all of its ILC cameras. Check out the Sony A6000 and A7II. Olympus' new EM5 II, has taken the Sony sensor to new heights with its sensor shift technology. Sony and Olympus are working together on the new technology. Olympus needs Sony sensors, and Sony could use Olympus Lens tech and Oly's 5 axis IBIS. Sony's camera dept is bringing some excitement to the camera business, and reflects good on Sony. Good press attached to their name can't hurt.

Re:Create the premiere desktop Linux distro!

[CronoCloud]

SONY should work on creating the premiere desktop and gaming Linux distro.

They DID create a Linux distro, it was a customized version of Kondara Linux, a japanese localized version of Red Hat 6.

Sony also maintained the Linux toolchain for the PS3, IBM maintained the kernel and gdb.

There's a perfect opening for SONY to come out with a Linux distro that people would actually want to use.

Why should they, when they can just use FreeBSD...and they DO use FreeBSD.

http://www.scei.co.jp/psvita-l...
http://www.scei.co.jp/ps3-lice...
http://www.scei.co.jp/ps4-lice...

Re:Really?

[CronoCloud]

I have a pc from about 10 years ago that is like to sell you for top dollar. The specs should be significantly better than any current console

What, are you from Eastern Europe? Where "current console" can mean a gray market genesis clone?

Considering that in 2005 the vast majority of people had a single core cpu with a GeForce 6 or some early 7xxx series if they had money to burn....that's in no way better than the PS4 or Xbox One...it's not even as good as the PS Vita. So no, that 10 year old PC won't deliver the same experience as PS4....or PS3 for that matter.

Really console fan boys have no idea what good graphics are. Heck they couldn't recognize a good ui either.

Do you, tovarisch anonymous coward? Most PC game UI is badly designed, wastes screenspace and is inefficient.

So why again do you want a console?
And you want all of Sony dedicated to this? Really? Guess you don't like advancement.

Gaming without the fuss, gospodin anonymous coward. Different strokes for different folks. Go back to your pirated PC games, tovarisch.

Re:Out of the box...

[CronoCloud]

Eventually Sony will have to realise that no matter how many new consoles they throw out, backwards compatibility will be a key issue so players can run their old and favourite titles

Eventually? That's the reason Sony bought Gaikai! Mr. AC....meet Playstation Now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

Internet TV carries a recurring fee

[tepples]

Sooner or later, all video will be delivered via the internet (or via the same technologies, anyway, from your ISP/content provider)

Right now I can buy a $200 TV and a $40 amplified antenna and receive the farmer five without a recurring fee other than rent and the electric bill. How would you suggest to subsidize viewers' Internet access the way advertising and, in the case of PBS, contributions to stations from viewers like you currently subsidize the broadcasting of OTA TV? Or what else would cause the major networks to cease OTA broadcasting?

Pay Once and Play; Minecraft mods

[tepples]

[On PlayStation Vita,] you don't have to put up with F2P monetized crap

Apple agrees with this anti-microtransaction sentiment, which is why it has opened a "pay once" category in its App Store.

Hell, the Vita version of Minecraft is better than the Android version.

Does Minecraft for PlayStation Vita support mods? Minecraft for Android does.

Re:Pay Once and Play; Minecraft mods

[CronoCloud]

Does Minecraft for PlayStation Vita support mods?

So "mods" is your new edge-case Axe to Grind, replacing games on SDTV, after-school multiplayer, and why SCEA/NIntendo doesn't just hand a dev kit over to everyone who thinks they're the next Shigeru Miyamoto?

You know that Vita Minecraft doesn't have mods, it's begging the question and just plain silly to ask. ..it does have DLC mash-up/texture packs. It's featureset is also in-line with the console version, meaning it has actual working anvils, enchanting, potion brewing, redstone, witches, horses, nether, wither, that the Android version doesn't.

Re:Pay Once and Play; Minecraft mods

[tepples]

So "mods" is your new edge-case Axe to Grind

Yes. I have realized that a mod is more reasonable in scope for a community project than a complete game. Would Half-Life have been nearly as popular without Team Fortress Classic and Counter-Strike? Yes, I'm aware that Counter-Strike was eventually ported, but if Half-Life were a console exclusive, Counter-Strike would never have been created in the first place.

Re:Pay Once and Play; Minecraft mods

[CronoCloud]

Yes. I have realized that a mod is more reasonable in scope for a community project than a complete game.

You're probably right about that.

but if Half-Life were a console exclusive, Counter-Strike would never have been created in the first place.

That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, maybe we'd have fewer "manly brown shooter of the week" a la "Duty Calls" sort of games.

Everything?

[sabbede]

Including Columbia Pictures/Music? What about all the other consumer hardware, like blu-ray players, receivers, cameras, etc.? Sony is huge.